French actress Sandrine Kiberlain talks to FRED about her role in Aimer, boire et chanter/Life of Riley, the new film of French cinema doyen Alain Resnais and his third adaptation of a play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn.

In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is terminally ill and only has a few months to live. Life begins to come apart at the seams – not just for Kathryn, who was once George’s partner, but also for her friends Tamara and Monica. The full force of the emotional turmoil they experienced in their youth and their long-buried dreams are rekindled. Much to the chagrin of their respectable, middle-class husbands, the women begin to argue about which of them should be allowed to accompany George on a final journey …
By confining the action to an artificial, almost entirely studio-bound world, Resnais succeeds in creating a tragicomic theatre of vanities. Employing the ironic distance of a sage observer of human nature, the venerable French director ponders the power of love and desire and in doing so enables his characters, driven by their longings, hopes and obsessions, to leave the beaten track for once.